This invention relates to continuous strip ticket stock, and to apparatus for producing an individual ticket from such stock.
Tickets have routinely been used as a kind of receipt for payment and entitlement to the goods or services paid for. As such, tickets have usually been pre-printed with information. A patron pays for the ticket at one location, and then exchanges the ticket for the goods or services at another location. If more than one type of good or service is available, a corresponding number of types of pre-printed tickets are made available and the correct one provided at the time of payment.
In an increasingly information dependent world, it is often desirable to custom print and to magnetically encode information on a ticket and then dispense the ticket from an automated module. The information on the ticket is used both to ensure that the patron gets what he or she is entitled to, and also to convey information to the seller about how the ticket is used
As an example, transfers have long been provided by mass transit systems so that patrons may switch from one line to another with a smaller additional payment than if the full fare for both lines was paid. A patron could obtain a pre-printed transfer on one line, and then use that transfer on another. While this system works, it permits occasional abuses, such as a patron using the transfer in an unintended manner, and also does not readily give an indication of how transfers are being used. If, to cite one case, the transit system finds a very large use of transfers of a particular pattern, additional transit vehicles might be assigned or new patterns of routes might be devised.
To improve mass transit service, many transit systems used tickets that are custom printed and magnetically encoded with route, date, time, and other information useful in system management. In the case of the transfer type of ticket, the ticket must be printed, encoded, and dispensed quickly and efficiently, because the ticket is often provided at the driver's station of a bus or streetcar with a line of patrons awaiting service. The ticket material is preferably provided as a long length of rolled or fan-fold stock, because the handling of pre-out tickets requires additional machinery and is therefore less reliable. The dispensing machinery must be able to print, encode, and dispense a single ticket from the ticket stock. It is important that the dispensed ticket be separated cleanly from the stock so that it can be read by automated fare collection equipment at a later time. However, one of the parts of the system most vulnerable to breakdowns is the ticket cutter. Also, existing transfer issuing equipment requires as much as about 3 seconds to dispense a transfer.
There is a need for an improved approach to providing patrons with custom-printed and encoded tickets in a fast, reliable manner. The present invention fulfills this need, and further provides related advantages.